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Monterey (1932-2000) Built as ss Monterey by Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Quincy, Mass in 1932 for U.S.-based Matson Line destined for their Pacific Ocean liner service (Samoa, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia). She was one of four ships in the Lines'"White Fleet" which included ss Malolo, ss Mariposa and ss Lurline. She was the third of those four ships designed by William Francis Gibbs and was identical to Mariposa and very similar to her sister ship Lurline. Her positioning cruise from the East to the West coast on 12 May 1932, saw her take 83 passengers from New York City. Her subsequent maiden voyage took place on 3 June 1932 from San Francisco after which she made stops in Los Angeles, Honolulu, Auckland, Pago Pago, Suva, Syndney and Melbourne.

During World War II, Monterey served as a fast troop carrier, often operating alone so she wouldn't be slowed by formation navigation in a convoy. In 1941, before U.S. declaration of war, the United States Marine Corps chartered her to carry 150 Chinese, Korean and Japanese missionaries and stranded U.S. citizens from China to San Francisco. Back in the City by the Bay, she was quickly refitted to hold 3,500 troops. On 16 December 1941 she steamed to Hawaii with 3,349 fresh troops, returning with 800 casualties of the Japanese atack on Pearl Harbor.

On 22 August 1942, she was briefly acquired by the United States Navy and assigned the name/designation USS Alameda (AP-68). However, she was returned to the War Shipping Administration on 25 September 1942 so never served under that name. Her war-time service would see her travel to the South Pacific and Australia, via the Panama Canal and Key West to Scotland (Glasgow), England (Liverpool), North Africa (Casablanca and Oran), Italy (On the way to Naples off the coast of Algeria, she and her convoy were attacked by German bombers) and even one trip to Brasil.

After the war, on 26 September 1946 Monterey arrived at Bethlehem-Alameda Shipyard in Alameda, CA for refitting and return to passenger service with Matson. However, funding for the project ran out after only 30% of the work had been completed so for five years she sat idle in Alameda. She was then purchased by the U.S. Government in August 1952 and towed to the mothball fleet in nearby Suisun Bay.

Meanwhile, her former owners, Matson Line, were enjoying fair post-war success with Lurline and were looking to expand their passenger operation once more. Matson bought the old mothballed s Monterey back from the US Government on 3 February 1956 and, since they had named another vessel Monterry by then, had to come up with a new name for their first Monterey. They therefor rechristened her ss Matsonia, replacing their earlier Matsonia which had been sold to Home Lines. On 22 May 1957, Matsonia teamed up with her sister Lurline on the San Francisco-Los Angeles-Honolulu run providing a 'first class only' service between Hawaii and the American mainland.

Within five years however, profits from passenger service had fallen to the point where Matson decided to anchor Matsonia indefinitely in San Francisco Bay. Sister ship Lurline continued to operate but suffered a major turbine problem in February, 1963; one that would require costly repairs. Instead of repairing Lurline, Matson sold the popular ship to Greek-based Chandris Lines who rechristened her Ellinis. Stung from poor public opinion regarding that sale, Matson rechristened the former Matsonia (ex-Monterey) as the new Lurline on 6 December 1963 and returned her to service.

By 1970, passenger receipts were down so low that Matson chose to cease liner service altogether. On 25 June 1970, Lurline arrived in San Francisco also to be sold to Chandris Lines. Five days later she steamed under new ownership out of the Golden Gate on her way to Piraeus with the new name Britanis.

At Piraeus, she was greatly modified to hold 1,655 passengers, mainly by subdividing existing cabins and converting cargo holds to new cabin areas. She re-entered service on 21 February 1971, leaving Southampton, England bound for Sydney and back; a regular roundtrip she would make for three years. In 1974 she saw service as a cruise ship in the Caribbean during winter and in Europe during the summer. After another lay-up time in 1980, Britanis cruised between New York and Bermuda in May 1982 with a smaller capacity of 1,200 passengers. In the 1983-1984 winter season, she sailed from Miami to the Caribbean, switching back to New York in the summer of 1984.

She received a major overhaul in 1986 which included parts from her sister Ellinis (ex-Lurline), some of which had gone to Ellinis from Homeric (ex-Mariposa) when Homeric was scrapped in 1974. At this point, parts from three sister ships were now bound together in Britanis. This refit gave Britanis eight years of Caribbean cruising until 19 November 1994.

In 1994, Britanis was chartered by the U.S. Government for use as a floating barracks/accomodation ship for military personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. She suffered minor damage from an electrical fire and was repaired, at U.S. Government expense, and then laid up at Tampa, Fl in late 1996.

During that time, her owners, Chandris, opted to sell Britanis as part of a plan to cease cruise line operation. The ship was maintained in anchorage until 24 January 1998 when she was sold to AG Belofin Investments of Liechtenstein and renamed Belofin-1. Her new owners intended to recoup their investment by selling the ship to scrappers, but a downturn in steel prices held them up for more than a year. On 3 July 2000, Belofin-1 was towed by the Ukrainian ocean-going tug Irbis out of Tampa Bay with the CN Marine ferry Bluenose lashed to her port side. The group was bound for the ship breakers at Alang, India. Belofin-1 began taking on water and listing during the voyage but nobody was on board to right the list. The tugboat crew cut her free and Belofin-1 capsized and sank due to progressive flooding some fifty miles off Cape Town, South Africa on 21 October 2000, ending an illustrious 68-year career.

My first ship was the Holland America Westerdam 1988 - 2003. I was 13 years old when my grandparents and parents took me on this fine vessel. Since then, Holland America has won a top spot in my heart. I have yet to find service matching Holland America's. It has been a while, but does Holland America still present their Dutch chocolate buffet?

My first ship was the Holland America Westerdam 1988 - 2003. I was 13 years old when my grandparents and parents took me on this fine vessel. Since then, Holland America has won a top spot in my heart. I have yet to find service matching Holland America's. It has been a while, but does Holland America still present their Dutch chocolate buffet?

It's no longer refered to as the Dutch chocolate buffet! It's now called the 'Chocolate Extravaganza'

Homeric (1986-present) Built by Jos. L. Meyer GmbH shipyard, Papenburg, (then) West Germany and delivered in 1986 as "Homeric" for Italian-based Home Lines for New York to Bermuda cruising in the summer and Caribbean cruising in the winter months. Homeric was planned during the first half of the 1980s as a replacement for the ageing ss Oceanic in the Home Lines' fleet. The ship was named in honor of the company's earlier ss Homeric, a popular ship for the line that had been destroyed by a fire in 1973.

She left Emden, West Germany on 12 May 1986 for New York. She then departed on her maiden voyage from New York City to Hamilton, Bermuda on 31 May 1986.

In March 1988, Home Lines (Homeric and Atlantic) was purchased by Holland America Line. Following their final season in Bermuda. HAL sold Atlantic to Premier Cruise Line and moved Homeric into a drydock and refit at the Norshipco yard in Norfolk, Va. Homeric was renamed Westerdam II on 2 November 1988 and departed Ft.Lauderdale, FL on her first HAL cruise, an alternating seven-day run to the Eastern, followed by a seven-day run to the Western Caribbean on 16 November 1988. Westerdam's arrival expanded the HAL fleet to four ships and signaled the beginning of a new era of growth for Holland America that continues today

She was the second ship in Holland America Line history to receive the name Westerdam. The first Westerdam sailed for Holland America Line from 1946 to 1965. She was a combination cargo-passenger ship with accommodations for 143 first-class passengers. While being constructed during World War II, Westerdam I was sunk three times: On 27 August 1942, she was bombed and sunk by Allied aircraft while in the shipyard in Rotterdam. The German occupiers raised the ship in September 1944, but she was quickly sunk again, this time by Dutch resistance fighters. After being raised a second time, the resistance again sank her on 17 January 1945. After the Netherlands were liberated in May, 1945, Westerdam I was raised a third time and finally completed. She would go on to be a regular on the transatlantic run, making two eight-day crossings each month between Rotterdam and New York. Her name translates to one of the four directions of the compass in the Dutch language; wester meaning, well, westerly.

In the winter of 1989, Westerdam II was sent back to her place of birth, Jos. L. Meyer GmbH, Papenburg, West Germany for lengthening, emerging in 1990 with a new overall length of 243 meters (originally 204 meters) and a new passenger capacity of 1,476 souls (originally 1,132). She was primarily assigned to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl cruising the Caribbean in the winter and to Vancouver, BC for Alaska cruising in the summer months.

In 1997, the romantic commedy "Out to Sea" starring Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Rue McClanahan, Dyan Cannon, Gloria DeHaven and Brent Spiner was partially filmed onboard Westerdam II. Compulsive gambler Charlie Gordon (Matthau), hiding out from his various bookies and loan-sharks, cons his brother-in-law Herb Sullivan (Lemmon) into an all expenses-paid luxury cruise in search of rich, lonely ladies to fleece. The catch, which Charlie does not reveal to Herb until the ship has left port, is that they are required to be dance hosts and must sleep in a cramped cabin in the bowels of the ship.

Ruled over by tyrannical, control-freak Cruise Director Gil Godwin, "a song and dance man raised on a military base" (Spiner), they do their best, despite Charlie's not actually being able to dance. They each meet a lady of interest. One is the luscious heiress Liz LaBreche (Cannon), whose wealth attracts Charlie every bit as much as the rest of her does. The other is lovely widow Vivian (DeHaven), who is under the impression that Herb is a doctor, not a dancer. By the time Charlie literally drags ship owner Mrs. Carruthers (McClanahan) across the dance floor, the boys aren't sure if they will find true love or need to abandon ship.

In March 2002, After 643 cruises spanning over 13 years with Holland America, she was internally transferred within the Carnival Group to Italy-based Costa Crociere/Costa Cruise Lines. After a drydock in Genoa, Italy, she was christened Costa Europa and in April 2002 commenced cruising for the Italian company.

In July 2009, Carnival Corporation announced that Costa Europa will join British tour operator Thomson Cruises under a 10-year bareboat charter beginning in April 2010. Under the agreement, Thomson has an option to purchase the ship after five years. She was renamed Thomson Dream and is currently operating for the British company

hello our first cruise was to alaska in (ihope 2003)i had virtually nothing to do with the planning . my darling but slightly bossy daughter in law phoned one evening and said guess what i just booked everyone on a cruise to alaska. it was ncl's wind which left the fleet a few months later.. an older ship and looking back i can see why ncl sold her off. the wind desperately needed dry dockand some new everything. we enjoyed every minute and y. since then we have been on princess. and 2 cruises(31 days total on the ncl sun. . never a bad meal and huge amounts of enjoyment . are we hooked yein the last 2 years e have had to cancell 2 cruises-health problems.but as soon as my doctor lets me driveagain( we have to get to the nearest airport and my wife refuses to drive in large cities0 either the south pacific or eastern europe are planned. i would like to try HAL(a shorter cruise to start but I feel we would issues withsome of hal's rules and likly with other passengers. so we stay with ncl or princess for now

hello our first cruise was to alaska in (ihope 2003)i had virtually nothing to do with the planning . my darling but slightly bossy daughter in law phoned one evening and said guess what i just booked everyone on a cruise to alaska. it was ncl's wind which left the fleet a few months later.. an older ship and looking back i can see why ncl sold her off. the wind desperately needed dry dockand some new everything. we enjoyed every minute and y. since then we have been on princess. and 2 cruises(31 days total on the ncl sun. . never a bad meal and huge amounts of enjoyment . are we hooked yein the last 2 years e have had to cancell 2 cruises-health problems.but as soon as my doctor lets me driveagain( we have to get to the nearest airport and my wife refuses to drive in large cities0 either the south pacific or eastern europe are planned. i would like to try HAL(a shorter cruise to start but I feel we would issues withsome of hal's rules and likly with other passengers. so we stay with ncl or princess for now

Windward (1993-present) Built in 1993 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France as ms Windward for Klosters Rederi A/S-owned Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL). Windward was the second of a pair of identical sister ships, the other was Dreamward (1992). Windward is 164 feet tall, has a draft of 22 feet, an average speed of 20 knots and a maximum speed of 21 knots. She was launched at the French yard on 14 November 1992 and delivered to her new owners on 4 May 1993. She crossed the Atlantic without passengers, arriving in Ft. Lauderdale, Fl on 13 May 1993 and then departed on her maiden cruise, a Panama Canal transit to Los Angeles, CA and San Francisco, CA on 14 May 1993. Upon arrival at Los Angeles (San Pedro) in June 1993, she was officially christened and named by her godmother, then former First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush.

Originally both Dreamward and Windward carried the early-nineties Norwegian Cruise Line livery with a white funnel and red & blue decorative stripes on the hull. Sometime before 1998 they received the new NCL livery consisting of a dark blue funnel and an all-white hull. As with the rest of NCL's fleet, Norwegian Wind operated with the "Freestyle" cruising concept, which allows guests to dine in any number of restaurants, in casual attire, at times of their own choosing.

Both sisters were planned with a gross register tonnage of 39,127 and a maximum passenger capacity of 1,246 persons. However, they were also designed from the start with the concept of lengthening in mind, making it possible for the company to easily expand their capacity without having to order entirely new ships. The lengthening was accomplished between March and May 1998 when Windward was split in two at the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany and a new 131-foot, 3-inch midsection was inserted to bring her new length to 754 feet. In the process she acquired 256 new cabins of which twelve were balcony cabins (six on each side) on Deck 11, the Marina Buffet restaurant on Deck 9 and four additional lifeboats (two on each side). These additions allowed her to carry 512 additional lower berth passengers, increasing her passenger capacity by 29%. In addition to the ‘stetching”, the ship's funnel and radar mast were adapted so that they could be folded down, allowing her to pass under the bridges of the Kiel Canal.

She re-emerged at 51,039 gross registered tons and with a new maximum passenger capacity of 2,156. Coinciding with this lengthening, the ship also emerged with a new name, Norwegian Wind. Her older sister underwent the same process and became Norwegian Dream. Norwegian Cruise Line was purchased by Malaysia-based Star Cruises in 2000 and shortly thereafter the fleet was systematically rationalized with new builds going to NCL and older tonnage being transferred to Star.

Besides Alaska from Vancouver, Norwegian Wind has operated western Caribbean cruises (Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Roatan, Honduras, Belize and Cozumel, Mexico) from both Miami, Fl and New Orleans, La. Between October and December 2001, Norwegian Wind made her first-ever series of cruises to Southeast Asia. After a 21-day "Northern Circle" cruise from Vancouver to Beijing, China she made port calls at Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Singapore, combining five different seven-night cruise itineraries with land packages. Norwegian Wind has also operated from San Francisco, CA, Los Angeles, CA, Miami, FL and New Orleans, LA. Norwegian Wind was also the NCL ship who pioneered Hawaii cruises offering voyages from Honolulu to Hilo, the gold coast of Kona on the Big Island, the rainforest near Nawiliwili, Kauai and the volcanoes that rise above Lahaina and Kahului, Maui, then finishing up with a trip to Fanning Island in order to satisfy the infamous Passenger Service Act.

In 2004 ownership of the Norwegian Wind was transferred to parent company Star Cruises, in anticipation of an internal transfer of the ship to the Star Cruises' fleet. This transfer was realized in April 2007, when the ship joined the Star Cruises fleet under the new name SuperStar Aquarius. She received a refit and refurbishment in Singapore in order to cater to the Asia-Pacific market, as well as a new livery to match the rest of the Star Cruises fleet. The ship came out of that refit with two significant changes. The first was that a large portion of her public rooms were converted for use as gambling venues. Secondly, due to superstition, (especially when it comes to gambling), the vast majority of her cabins were re-numbered to exclude the number 4. In Chinese, the number 4 means 'die', as in death. As a result, none of her cabins contain the number 4 except for those on the lowest passenger level which is deck 4. SuperStar Aquarius can accommodate around 2,100 passengers in all berths, with approximately 1,000 staying in the lower berths. She has a crew of approximately 700 personnel and ten decks that are all accessible to her passengers.

SuperStar Aquarius offers a wide variety of international cuisines; Thai, Chinese and Western. Thai and Chinese food can be found at the Grand Ocean Palace Restaurant while the Marco Polo Restaurant offers Italian dishes. The Blue Lagoon Café, open 24 hours, offers an open-air barbecue. Additional dining establishments on the ship are the Champ's Bar, Oceana Barbecue, Mariner's Buffet, Dynasty Restaurant and Spices Restaurant. The Lagoon Bar and Aquarius Lounge offer cocktails and pre-dinner drinks.

SuperStar Aquarius is normally home-based at the Ocean Terminal in Hong Kong with her itineraries including one-night high sea cruises and occasionally, two-night cruises to Xiamen and Haikou, China. Between March and October 2008, SuperStar Aquarius was based in Singapore from where she offered a variation of one-night, two-night, and four-night cruises. She returned to Hong Kong in late October 2008 and resumed her current itinerary.

John - All I can say is WOW!! Thank you so much for the indepth information on Matson's 2 ships. I'm fairly certain my grandmother's trip to Hawaii was before 1957 so she must have been on Lurline. I'm going to print your wonderful history lesson and pictures and add it to her travel journal folder so her family can see the luxury liner of old that she sailed on.

For a woman born in 1889, she was one of the most well-traveled independent gals around...most of it done solo...all over the world and U.S. Her travel journal would make most on this board extremely jealous. Imagine a grey-haired lady, always in a dress with corsette and black pumps, jumping in her car on a whim and driving across the U.S. alone (several times), riding a donkey to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in the same attire, roaming all over the Holy Land, Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. One of the true Renaissance Women, for sure.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this addition to her Hawaii cruise.

John - All I can say is WOW!! Thank you so much for the indepth information on Matson's 2 ships. I'm fairly certain my grandmother's trip to Hawaii was before 1957 so she must have been on Lurline. I'm going to print your wonderful history lesson and pictures and add it to her travel journal folder so her family can see the luxury liner of old that she sailed on.

For a woman born in 1889, she was one of the most well-traveled independent gals around...most of it done solo...all over the world and U.S. Her travel journal would make most on this board extremely jealous. Imagine a grey-haired lady, always in a dress with corsette and black pumps, jumping in her car on a whim and driving across the U.S. alone (several times), riding a donkey to the bottom of the Grand Canyon in the same attire, roaming all over the Holy Land, Europe, Asia, Africa, etc. from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. One of the true Renaissance Women, for sure.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this addition to her Hawaii cruise.

mv Wappen von Hamburg (1955-present) Built in 1955 by Steinwerder Industrien AG, a subsidiary of the better known Blohm + Voss AG, Hamburg, (then) West Germany as mv Wappen von Hamburg for Hafen Dampfschiffahrt Aktien Gesellschaft, commonly known asHADAG-Lloyd AG. She was the yards and West Germany’s first post-war seagoing passenger vessel and was launched on 1 February 1955 and delivered to her owners on 14 May 1955. When she emerged from the German yard, Wappen von Hamburg, loosely translated into ‘Coat of arms of Hamburg’, came in at 2,599 gross registered tons but, being a day cruiser, could accommodate up to 1,600 passengers.

HADAG-Lloyd, not to be confused with HAPAG-Lloyd, was a Hamburg-based company which owned small vessels such as harbor ferries and excursion boats and used them on day cruises. Beginning in 1952, they took over a service from Hamburg to the north German off-shore resort island of Helgoland. This service proved very popular so HADAG decided to order a new-build which became Wappen Von Hamburg.

The ship attracted full passenger loads on her route for HADAG (Hamburg-Cuxhaven-Helgoland-Hörnum) resulting in a near sister ship being ordered which became the Bunte Kuh (‘Colored Cow’ in English) in 1957. The drawback for both sister ships, however, would turn out to be their speed. At 17.5 knots, their passengers had a very limited time at Helgoland so HADAG-Lloyd was forced to charter additional tonnage to serve the island straight from Cuxhaven. This allowed Wappen von Hamburg and Bunte Kuh to sail directly to Helgoland from Hamburg which saved time and allowed their passengers to have a longer stay on the island.

In 1960, HADAG suddenly sold Wappen von Hamburg to the Hellenic Star Greek Maritime Co. Ltd. owned by Petros M. Nomikos for 375,000 pounds sterling. He had her converted/rebuilt for cruising at the Blohm + Voss yard. Among other improvements, she was refitted with a swimming pool, air conditioning and cabins for 186 passengers.

Under the new name of ‘Delos’ she departed Hamburg on 28 April 1961 for Piraeus, Greece arriving at her new home port on 9 May 1961. Nomikos Lines used her on a regular run from Piraeus to the Aegean islands of Delos, Mykonos and Rodos/Rhodes where she quickly earned herself a high reputation.

In 1967, the vessel was sold again, this time to a Seattle/Vancouver-based company by the name of the Alaska Cruise Line for $2,155.000 million U.S. She departed Piraeus on 14 October 1967 on a long journey, bound for Vancouver, BC. Alaska Cruise Line was a company run by Chuck West. In 1947, it was West who designed a series of land excursions as Arctic Alaska Tours (from 1954 known as Westours Inc., and in 1977 taken over by Holland America Lines) for the passengers of the Alaska Steamship Company. When that company left the passenger trade in 1964, West went on to establish his own cruise line, Alaska Cruise Line. He renamed Delos as ‘Polar Star’ and she became one of the first “cruise ships” to serve the Alaska market from Vancouver and Seattle during the 1968 summer season. During the summers, she cruised in Pacific waters to Mexico and as far south as Tahiti under the West Line name. In 1970, she received yet another name, ‘Pacific Star’ full-time for West Line, basically continuing her same itineraries to Alaskan and North Pacific waters in the summer and to Mexican Pacific as well as South Pacific destinations in the winter. It was felt that ‘Pacific Star’ was a better fit for the winter cruises in warmer climes.

May 1972 saw her on the move again, this time to a company by the name of Donald L. Ferguson Cruises Ltd. who renamed her ‘Xanadu’. After a refit at Esquimalt (Victoria), BC on Vancouver Island, she began operating for Seattle-based Xanadu Cruises on 14 May 1973 on Alaska cruises. The winter season saw her cruising from Los Angeles to Mexico, Panama and the Galapagos Islands. Xanadu Cruises had both style and sophistication but the energy crisis of the seventies effectively ended her cruise line career. On 13 December 1973, Xanadu was purchased by Seattle-based Joel Eisenberg and the vessel continued to sail her itineraries. Her new owners developed financial problems so in 1977 Xanadu ceased operations. While in Vancouver in June 1978, she was arrested for non-payment of mortgage bills to the First National Bank of Seattle and subsequently laid up in Vancouver. In October 1978, the bank took ownership of the vessel by auction and she was towed to Seattle, WA where she was laid up.

She was then purchased by the Seattle-based Pan Alaska Seafood Company who had her towed to Dutch Harbor, AK and once there and after a rebuilt, used her as an accommodation ship for the crab fishery industry. In 1983, Xanadu was towed to Tacoma, WA and laid up once again. A case can be made that this is when her downward spiral began when in subsequent years she was being passed from owner to owner, none of which improved her status and overall condition.

In December 1984 she was purchased by the Xanadu Cruise Ship Corporation Inc. who brought the vessel to the Port of Los Angeles’ outer harbor where she lay at anchor. Their Long Beach, CA-based owners, under the name 'Project Expex Inc.', had plans to turn her into a floating exhibition and trade ship under the name of ‘Expex’. They even had a date in March 1986 picked out when Expex would set sail on an 18-month 'trade show cruise' to market American technology to developing nations, She did receive the new name but was then neglected as well as vandalized.

In 1991, Expex was sold to ‘World Ministries’ aka ‘The Friendship’, a non-profit charitable organization from California who renamed her ‘Faithful’. Their idea was to restore and renovate her and use her as a medical relief/care ship for service in the Caribbean. In 1994, Faithful was moved to Wilmington, CA (still part of the Port of Los Angeles) for continued renovation which included the addition of a large meeting room. While at her berth, she was illegally occupied by missionaries. The renovation work was never completed due to lack of funding and the vessel was returned to an anchorage in the outer harbor where she deteriorated for several more years. In 2003, she was reportedly sold to Florida-based James Mitchell and the ship was moved to Southwest Marine, a ship repair facility on Terminal Island (also part of the Port of L.A.) and had plans to rebuild her into a hospital ship for children by the name of ‘Xanadu 2’. Mitchell reportedly heads a non-profit group known as Project Hospital Ship Oceanic Incorporated.This plan, as so many others before involving the ship, never materialized.

On 20 September 2005, after being sold once again, Faithful was suddenly towed to an estuary on the northern waterfront of the City of Alameda in the San Francisco Bay area where she was to undergo conversion into a private luxury yacht with the name ‘Aurora’. Her new owners were on record as Al Boraq Aviation however, numerous attempts by the Alameda City Attorneys Office to contact Al Boraq in order to inquire as to their intentions with the vessel were ignored. After eighteen months of trying to have the owners take away their deteriorating hulk from the former Naval Fleet Industrial Supply Center, the city of Alameda shelled out $200,000 in hard cash to have Faithful towed by private ship salvager Kurt Lind of Cal Equipment, who also received the title/lien to the ship. On 17 February 2008, two tugboats towed her to a mooring point, first to Decker Island, then to the bank of the Sacramento River at former U.S. Army, now City of Rio Vista property, in Solano County, CA.

Since that time, the ship’s current caretakers, salvager Kurt Lind and Christopher Wilson, have organized a number of volunteers, who live onboard, to clean and renovate the Faithful. Her hull and superstructure have recently been repainted white by them and her flooring is in the process of restoration. Estimates for a full restoration of the 55-year old ship run from $10 million U.S. to $60 million. Future plans for the ship have ranged from a floating condominium to a museum. Only time will tell!

Thanks, DizzyDallasDi for bringing up the subject of the Matson Liners, and many thanks to Copper 10 - 8 for all the history! This brings up such wonderful memories.

My father was a career Coast Guard officer, and our family moved to Honolulu from San Francisco by sailing on the SS Lurline in the summer of 1962. Back then it was common for ships to be used as routine transportation between Hawaii and the mainland. Though the airlines may have begun taking business from ships in the early 1960's, it seemed to me that it wasn't until the advent of the jumbo jet that sailing to and from the islands truly became outmoded.

We lived in Hawaii for three years, and then sailed back to San Francisco in 1965, also on the SS Lurline, when my dad was transferred to New York. Though the ships had the same name, I realize now from your history that they were actually two different ships. I do recall that during that time period, Matson operated four ships - the Mariposa and the Monterey on the longer cruises to the South Pacific, and the Lurline and the Matsonia between LA/San Francisco and Honolulu. I always wondered what happened to those ships, especially when I see those shipping containers labeled "MATSON" in ports or on freight trains today.

If I ever mention to anyone that when we lived in Hawaii, we sailed to and from Honolulu on a ship, they think I must be referring to the 1800's and the days of old-fashioned sailing ships.

I can't say that started a love of cruising, as I did think of those trips as transportation, though they were of course, also luxury cruises for those times. I didn't get hooked until we sailed out of Seattle on the Zaandam in 2006 on a cruise to Alaska. Now I am really hooked, and I am slowly convincing DH.

Thanks, DizzyDallasDi for bringing up the subject of the Matson Liners, and many thanks to Copper 10 - 8 for all the history! This brings up such wonderful memories.

My father was a career Coast Guard officer, and our family moved to Honolulu from San Francisco by sailing on the SS Lurline in the summer of 1962. Back then it was common for ships to be used as routine transportation between Hawaii and the mainland. Though the airlines may have begun taking business from ships in the early 1960's, it seemed to me that it wasn't until the advent of the jumbo jet that sailing to and from the islands truly became outmoded.

We lived in Hawaii for three years, and then sailed back to San Francisco in 1965, also on the SS Lurline, when my dad was transferred to New York. Though the ships had the same name, I realize now from your history that they were actually two different ships. I do recall that during that time period, Matson operated four ships - the Mariposa and the Monterey on the longer cruises to the South Pacific, and the Lurline and the Matsonia between LA/San Francisco and Honolulu. I always wondered what happened to those ships, especially when I see those shipping containers labeled "MATSON" in ports or on freight trains today.

If I ever mention to anyone that when we lived in Hawaii, we sailed to and from Honolulu on a ship, they think I must be referring to the 1800's and the days of old-fashioned sailing ships.

I can't say that started a love of cruising, as I did think of those trips as transportation, though they were of course, also luxury cruises for those times. I didn't get hooked until we sailed out of Seattle on the Zaandam in 2006 on a cruise to Alaska. Now I am really hooked, and I am slowly convincing DH.

Thanks Doctork! Here's Zaandam:

ms Zaandam (2000-present) Built in 2000 as ms Zaandam by Fincantieri - Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., Marghera (Venice), Italy for Holland America Line. Her keel was laid on 26 June 1998 and she was floated out of her building dock on 30 April 1999.

After running successful technical trials in the Adriatic, Zaandam was delivered to Holland America Line on 6 April 2000. She then crossed the Atlantic via the Adriatic and Mediterranean under the command of Captain Jean “Jack” van Coevorden. Uniquely, Zaandam was originally intended to serve as Holland America's bid to attract younger passengers. Consequently, upon her arrival in Ft. Lauderdale, FL she was christened by her then 13-year old godmothers, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, known to television viewers of the late 80's and early 90's from the sitcom "Full House",in a ceremony on 4 May 2000. She departed that afternoon on her maiden voyage to the Caribbean, alternating Western and Eastern itineraries.

Zaandam was named after the city of Zaandam located in the Dutch province of Noord Holland (North Holland), the main city in the municipality of Zaanstad. Zaandam, the city, was once a small settlement built on the river Zaan near a dam. ms Zaandam is the third ship in HAL history to bear the name Zaandam and also the third ship of the four vessel “R” class, Rotterdam (1997), Volendam (1999), and Amsterdam (2000) are her sisters. The “R” class really should be divided into two separate classes due to internal and external differences; Rotterdam & Amsterdam as one class and Zaandam & Volendam as the other. Holland America Line, however, considers the four ships as one class.

The first Zaandam, built by the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij/Netherlands Steamboat Company, at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was launched on 20 July 1882 as a 3,063 ton combination steam and twin-masted sail ship. Zaandam I, HAL’s first ship built in the Netherlands, would sail between Rotterdam and New York through 1897 and also opened HAL’s new route to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In June 1897, she was purchased by the Austro-Americana Steamship Company and renamed Styria. In 1902 she was sold to the New York-based Luckenbach Steamship Company, renamed Julia Luckenbach, and converted into a petroleum carrier. In January 1913 while in Chesapeake Bay, she collided with another steamer and subsequently sank.

The second Zaandam was laid down on 22 December 1937 at Wilton-Feijenoord at Schiedam, the Netherlands. She was a 10,909 ton combo cargo-passenger vessel which departed Rotterdam for New York on her maiden voyage on 7 January 1939. When the Netherlands were invaded and occupied by Germany in May 1940, Zaandam was repainted in camouflage colors. In 1942 she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport and then assigned to the United States War Shipping Administration. In November 1942, Zaandam was torpedoed by a German U-boat, some 300 miles off the coast of Brazil and sank, tragically with 130 of her occupants killed or missing at sea. There were 169 survivors.

Essentially a stretched-out and slightly larger version of HAL’s “S” class, Zaandam has three design changes that distinguish her from that earlier class: Her aft swimming pool was moved from Navigation Deck up one level to Lido Deck, an alternate restaurant, at the time of her delivery called the Marco Polo, later changed into the Pinnacle Grill, was incorporated, and a mid-ship elevator bank and stairwell was added. Zaandam is similar to the lead ship of the “R” class, Rotterdam, but is slower (she basically has the same speed as the four “S” class ships). Zaandam also has a single funnel, however the stack is of a different design than the “S” class funnels. Rotterdam and Amsterdam have a twin-funnel, side-by-side arrangement. Unlike Rotterdam, one of HAL’s two flagships designed for longer, world-wide cruises, Zaandam was designed for yeoman duty in the Caribbean and Alaska but has also found her way to Hawaii, the South Pacific, Australia and Asia. Her home ports so far have been Ft. Lauderdale and Port Canaveral, Fl, San Diego, CA and Vancouver, BC.

The basic layout of Zaandam’s public rooms are the same as that of ms Volendam, including her two-tier Rotterdam dining room, Lido buffet-style restaurant, an alternate 88-seat Marco Polo (Pinnacle Grill) restaurant, as well as a Club HAL children’s room on her Sports Deck that can also be used as a meeting or reception room. Her main two-story show lounge is named after Dutch abstract painter Pieter Cornelis “Piet” Mondriaan. The lounge glitters with bright white, gray, and silver decor with somewhat darker furniture providing contrast (the tables feature lamps with miniature musical instruments). Zaandam’s trade mark Ocean Bar attracts the pre- and post-dinner cocktail crowd and her 205-seat Wajang theater, the place for movies, meetings and presentations. The Crows Nest observation lounge has a 320-degree view for taking in port departures and arrivals. She has an Ocean Spa fitness center with a gymnasium and separate massage, sauna and steam rooms. Zaandam also came out with an Explorers Lounge, Java Café coffee bar, Piano Bar, a 24-seat Erasmus Library, an Internet center, shops stocked with duty-free goods, and a Casino with Casino Bar which doubles as the ship’s sports bar.

Zaandam’s theme is loosely tied to the world of music with related memorabilia scattered throughout the ship in fabrics, posters and real instruments. Zaandam’s center piece is a giant 22-foot high Baroque-style Dutch pipe/street organ with mechanical figures “playing” violins, drums and horns that can be found in her three-deck high atrium. The organ “performs” on sea days at 11:00 am and at 12 Noon and at 2:00 and 4:00 pm.Zaandam sports a collection of rock 'n' roll memorabilia that would do credit to a Hard Rock Cafe: a Fender Squire Telecaster guitar, signed by the Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, is located in a glass display case on the Deck 4 staircase. An Ariana acoustic guitar signed by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, a Fender Stratocaster guitar signed in silver ink by the members of Queen and a Bently Les Paul-style guitar signed by various artists, including Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, BB King, Robert Cray, Keith Richards and Les Paul can also be found in the hallway near the lower entrance to the Rotterdam dining room. The rear wall of the Explorers lounge has a Conn saxophone with a mouthpiece signed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. There are two somewhat unusual piano art pieces on board that have been painted by modern Dutch artists; one by Henk van Vessem painted in a colorful abstract design located in the ship’s Lido Restaurant, the other, made to look like “shipwreck wood” is located in the Seaview Lounge (outside the Piano Bar).

The artwork and artifacts onboard Zaandam are valued at more than U.S. $2 million, including antiques, paintings, prints and photography centered around a theme of Dutch and Holland America Line seafaring exploration and cruise travel. There are a series of black & white photos of the line’s early cruise ships in some of the passenger corridors. Zaandam also exhibits works created specifically for the vessel by world-class artists and has a collection of Egyptian artwork (including a wooden model of the third coffin of King Tutankhamen) permanently displayed in the Art Gallery. Usually an “eye catcher” is the large reproduction of the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Yellow Jasper”, actually a fragment of an Egyptian queen’s face (commonly referred to as “the yellow lips”) located on the outside of the Explorers Lounge. Like all other HAL ships, great paintings of the line’s ships by Captain Stephen Card can be found in the forward stairwell, and some public rooms are decorated in Dutch colonial motif. A bronze sculpture of a group of five leaping white-sided Pacific dolphins by British artist Susanna Holt is located at Zaandam’s mid-ships magrodomed Lido pool. A pair of boldly colored life-size ceramic cows by Dutch artist Jackie Bouw lie contently by the ship’s rear/Sea view swimming pool.

Zaandam’s Java Café, originally found outside her Wajang Theater, has been converted into a wine tasting bar and her original Marco Polo Italian alternate restaurant into the Pinnacle Grill serving Pacific Northwest fare. In November, 2003, Holland America Cruise Line announced a U.S. $225 million program of up-scaling their cruise ships, cruise line image and passenger cruise experience called the 'Signature of Excellence program'. This enhancement program included stateroom amenities (luxury beds and bed linens upgrades, Euro-style mattresses, waffle-weave bathrobes and Egyptian cotton towels to all cabin categories), new massage-type showerheads and professional-grade hair dryers in all bathrooms, new flat-screen LCD televisions with DVD players, make-up mirrors with halo lightning, fresh flowers and complimentary fruit baskets in all cabins, a Culinary Arts Center (inside the Wajang Theater) presented by Food & Wine magazine, with an on-stage kitchen for gourmet cooking demonstrations and interactive classes; an Explorations Café (taking in the Erasmus Library and original internet center and adding a coffee bar); a Neptune concierge lounge for the exclusive use by Deluxe Verandah and Penthouse suite occupants; an expanded Greenhouse Spa and Salon offering thermal suite treatment, a hydrotherapy and thalassotherapy pool and heated ceramic lounges; and the ”Loft” and the “Oasis”, respectively, an interior and exterior area designed exclusively for teens (ages 13-17). Zaandam had her SOE part 1 enhancements installed while in dry-dock in January 2005 at Freeport, the Bahamas.

During the first week of February 2005, Zaandam, her sister Volendam, HAL's Vista class Zuiderdam, Carnival Miracle and Radisson's Seven Seas Navigator were chartered by the Jacksonville, Fl. Super Bowl Host Committee as accomodations/hotel ships. Jacksonville, the smallest market ever to host a Super Bowl, rented the five ships for U.S. $11.5 million and "parked" them along the St. Johns River for five days to assist with hotel room space for National Football League affiliates and sponsors for Super Bowl XXXIX. The three HAL ships were berthed at the city's newly upgraded Talleyrand Marine Terminal. Rooms aboard the five ships cost $200 to $550 a night.

On 21 January 2009, Zaandam gained a Digital Workshop program by Microsoft which is comprised of complimentary classes led by a Microsoft-trained “techspert”. As part of the program, located in the Queen’s Room, her passengers can learn to use computers to enhance photos, produce and publish videos onto a DVD and create personal web pages or blogs. In addition, one-on-one coaching, called “Techspert Time” is available for more than 20 hours each week. On 18 November 2009, on the east-bound portion of her Circle Hawaii cruise, Zaandam also gained a second alternate restaurant, "Canaletto", serving Italian cuisine. Canaletto, named for the famous 18th century Venetian artist, which debuted on the ms Eurodam in 2008, will come to life for dinner nightly between 5:30 and 9:30 pm when a section of the ships' Lido restaurant is transformed into the Italian restaurant. Canaletto's menu begins with an antipasti plate that changes nightly, followed by soup choices, salad, four pasta dishes and entrees like veal Milanese, chicken Marsala

Thanks, DizzyDallasDi for bringing up the subject of the Matson Liners, and many thanks to Copper 10 - 8 for all the history! This brings up such wonderful memories.

You are so very welcome. I've done lots of research on the Matson Line but none of it comes close to the details and pictures that John has provided. What a wealth of ship history that man can provide...very impressive!

You are so very welcome. I've done lots of research on the Matson Line but none of it comes close to the details and pictures that John has provided. What a wealth of ship history that man can provide...very impressive!

That is the truth! John you do an amazing job of collecting all the long ago history for each ship.

You probably even have the scoop on my next ship, the Veendam. This is the sure sign that I am now hooked. The Lurline was transportation, my three previous cruises were HAL charters arranged by Garrison Keillor for fans of his radio show Prairie Home Companion. But now I'm heading for South American and Antarctica next January on the Veendam - that is now just "Hooked on HAL"!

My first cruise was in 1969 around the Greek islands on the Epirotiki Orpheus with a bunch of high school kids from around the U.S. (we were touring and studying in Europe/Greece/Israel for 6 weeks during the summer before my senior year). I laugh when I look at photos of how small she was and how small our inside cabin was. But what a blast we had!

My first cruise was in 1969 around the Greek islands on the Epirotiki Orpheus with a bunch of high school kids from around the U.S. (we were touring and studying in Europe/Greece/Israel for 6 weeks during the summer before my senior year). I laugh when I look at photos of how small she was and how small our inside cabin was. But what a blast we had!

I didn't have an opportunity - or really any interest - to sail again until my DH and I sailed on the second sailing of the Westerdam out of Venice in 2004. THAT was when I got hooked.

ms Irish Coast (1952-1989) Built as Irish Coast in 1952 by Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast, Northern Ireland for Coast Lines Ltd. (Great Britain). Coast Lines had been formed in 1913 as a result of the merger of three Liverpool coaster companies. Irish Coast was delivered to her owners on 16 October 1952 and placed with one of Coast's subsidiaries, Burns & Laird Lines. The passenger ship/coaster was placed on the Belfast, Northern Ireland to Liverpool, England run. During her career with Burns & Laird, she often was used as a replacement for ships who were in overhaul, so could frequently be found on routes to/from Cork, Ireland - Fishguard, Wales - Dublin, Ireland and Glasgow, Scotland.

On 2 October 1966, Irish Coast was operated by yet another Coast Lines' subsidiary, the Belfast Steamship Company, again for service between Belfast and Liverpool

On 16 August 1968, she was purchased by Greece-based Epirotiki Steamship Navigation Company aka Epirotiki Line who renamed her Orpheus (2). She departed Birkenhead along the river Mersey opposite Liverpool on 22 August 1968, bound for Piraeus, Greece.

In 1969, she received three consecutive name changes in quick succession; from Semiramis II to Achilleus, before her owners settled on Apollo XI, no doubt inspired by the first manned mission to land on the Moon in July 1969.

Epirotiki operated her from Piraeus on cruises to the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, calling at Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Patmos, Delos and Mykonos.

Yet one more name change, although minor, in Epirotiki service was received in 1980 when Apollo XI was changed to the Greek Apollon 11.

In 1981, she was sold to Corporacion Naviera Intercontinental de Panama, SA. and renamed Regency. On 11 October 1989, she was at Batangas City, on the southwestern part of Luzon in the Philippines, when typhoon 'Dan' struck the area. Regency suffered severe damage as a result and was subsequently sold for scrap. She was towed to Manilla, where she was ultimately broken up.

Interesting info but there seems to be some discrepancies. I sailed her in early August of 1969 (right after the moon landing) and she was most definitely still named Orpheus. And from what I can tell, she started life in 1948 as the Munster, was one of the most popular Greek cruise ships ever to sail under Epirotiki, nee Swan Hellenic, nee Royal Olympic, and returned to Greece in the last 1990's where she was finally laid to rest in 2000.

First cruise: October, 1955 on the Princess Norah/Queen of the North, from Ketchikan down the inside passage to either Prince Rupert or Vancouver (I forget which), and then by train back to Seattle. There were five of us sharing two cabins. My dad and I shared a room with bunk beds. Best (and only) memory: my little sister ordered the trout for dinner on board the ship one night and wouldn't eat it because, as she so eloquently put it, "it's staring at me".